Strong action is needed

May 16, 2012

Bureaucrats within the Veterans Administration who are cheating those who have served in the military should be fired. Period.

Many in the VA work hard to provide the best help possible to veterans, especially those who need help healing the physical and mental scars of service. A few do not.

Members of Congress are looking into delays in providing mental health care for veterans. During a Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing this week, lawmakers were told of an outrageous, unacceptable practice by some in the VA.

Among those testifying was Nicholas Tolentino, former mental health administrative officer at the VA Medical Center in Manchester, N.H.

Government policy is that veterans who request mental health care must be granted appointments within 14 days of requesting them.

But at Manchester, bureaucrats got around that by not asking when veterans wanted appointments. Instead, they were told when they could come in for help. Take it or leave it. The date specified by VA schedulers was entered into patient records as their "desired" appointment date.

That is wrong. Those who engaged in the practice knew it. They should be fired by the VA.